Photo: Town Clerk Ellen Cushman announcing state presidential primary results
While the results of Super Tuesday’s Republican Presidential Primaries held across the country on March 5 solidified his hold on the party, Donald Trump did not find the same level of love in the Town of Homes.
The former president and leading GOP presidential candidate came out second best in Belmont, trailing former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, 1,140 to 851 (55 percent to 41 percent), in the Republican contest. Former NJ Gov. Chris Christie lead the also rans with 25 votes, followed by “no preference” (23), Vivek Ramaswamy (12), Ron DeSantis (9) and Asa Huchinson with 6.
Belmont Republicans proved themselves as outliers as Trump handily won the Bay State, picking up all the available 40 delegates with 60 percent of the vote to Haley’s 37 percent. Haley would suspend her campaign on Wednesday, March 6.
You can find the unofficial results for all races at the Town Clerk’s webpage.
Over on the Democratic side of the ledger, incumbent president Joe Biden secured 3,146 votes of the 3,820 ballots cast by those affiliated with the Democratic party. Just under 10 percent of the Democratic vote, 375 in total, where marked as “no preference.” Dean Phillips (123) and Marianne Williamson (95) also received votes.
“No Preference” topped the field in the Libertarian race with 12 votes, tripling the tally of Jacob George Hornberger with 4.
Belmont Democrats elected Steven Owens as the State Committee Man and Jessica Nahigian as State Committee Woman while the Republicans selected John and Catherine Umina as their representatives.
There was no surprise who topped the field for each parties 35 member Town Committee: Anne Mahon for the Democrats and Tomi Olson for the Republicans.
A total of 5,934 ballots (out of 18,217 voters in town) were cast, with 64 percent Democratic ballots and 35 percent Republican.
It was slightly past 10 p.m. when Town Clerk Ellen Cushman read the primary results, a delay of nearly 90 minutes. A surge of last-minute ballots placed in the drop box at Town Hall created the night’s backlog as each dropped-off ballot is required to be brought to the voter’s home precinct to be tallied.